Holy Week 2016 Pastoral Call to Fast and Pray

Our tradition of fasting and praying from Good Friday to Easter Sunday began in 2006. At that time, we felt keenly that our church was at a crossroads, and we found ourselves turning to God for answers about our future direction as a congregation. We prayed and were led to the following key conclusions that set a course for us to evolve, with God’s grace, into the church we are today:

Move our regular Sunday service outdoors.

Relocate our church offices.

Trust the church’s finances to God.

The tradition we established all those years ago has provided us with the physical and spiritual space at least once a year to pause, fast and pray for God’s direction in our lives. The result is that God has answered clearly and has attended with us in a journey that saw us become “The Church Without Walls” and embrace even more fully our core belief that having a direct, personal and unencumbered relationship with God is our true calling as Christians, and that this spiritual relationship should have primacy over any contravening doctrine or rules.

Today we find ourselves joyfully doing the work God has laid out for us, with the miracle stories happening at a seemingly dizzying pace. We have experienced significant growth in our outreach to the community and to like-minded seekers. Every year when we celebrate the anniversary of our founding on March 15, 1998 we celebrate our past and present and look hopefully into a bright future.

Once again this year, I pray that you will join me and the pastoral staff of this church on Holy Saturday in Candler Park to fast and pray. It is only with your support that we have become a church that is affirming, inclusive and progressive in our ministry — and it is only with your help and prayer that it can continue. If you cannot join us physically, you are of course welcome to be with us in spirit.

We will spend the rest of Lent getting ready for this day. For instance, I typically set aside an hour at 11am on Tuesdays in Lent to pray and prepare.

The following are the details of our time of prayer and fasting. If you have small children, don’t let that stop you from participating — just let us know you intend to be there and we will arrange for child care during the Holy Saturday portion of our observance where we gather together to fast and pray together. In particular, if you have a signed covenant with this church, I appeal to you to participate in this sacred, and holy, time of reflection and seeking God’s direction for this fellowship.

We have examples in the Bible of others calling for prayer and fasting during times of searching, to set themselves aside for God and to determine God’s leading. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert fasting and praying — he set himself aside to better/more clearly hear God speak and direct him in all that he needed to do. We are no different in this church. We need God’s direction and wisdom to clearly speak to us.

Therefore we set aside Easter weekend to put ourselves aside and concentrate on God, to allow God to speak with each of us and to all of us as a church. Our church will start our fasting and prayer with the Good Friday service (at sunset) and continue through the Easter Sunrise service.

Schedule for Holy Saturday

9:00 – 9:45am Praising God in Song – Centering ourselves and focusing on God9:45 – 10:00am Direction for individual prayer time10:00 – 11:00am Individual prayer/meditation – concentrating on your needs11:00 – 11:30am Time of sharing over juice/water – a type of break11:30 – Noon Presentation of prayer items about church – details so that we all can pray about our church issuesNoon – 12:30pm Individual Prayer for the church12:30 – 1:00pm Brainstorm on the church questions– sharing how God spoke to you1:00 – 1:15pm Time of sharing over juice/ water – a type of break1:15pm – 1:30pm Group Prayer time1:30 – 2:00pm Sharing

Founding and Senior Pastor of Gentle Spirit Christian Church, Rev. Paul M. Turner grew up in suburban Chicago and was ordained by the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches in 1989. He and his husband Bill have lived in metro Atlanta since 1994. He is the editor of the Seeds of Hope blog whose posts from 1999-2005 are at http://whosoever.org/seeds/ -- and which now resides at http://gentlespirit.org/topics/blog/seeds-of-hope/.

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Firearms Policy

Effective July 1, 2014 until further notice, no firearms of any kind are allowed at any Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta event. This is pursuant to the Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014, which allows Georgia residents with concealed carry permits to bring firearms into churches that give express permission to do so. Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta under no circumstances grants this permission.